Chapter Twenty-One: Invaders

Kenshi Fujii had run deep into the battlefield, speeding right through any dwarf in his path. He moved at such a great speed that any one of the creatures who tried to get in his way got struck down with his katana before they could even react.

He landed in a more open part of the forest. He took a minute to survey his surroundings. There were buildings made of stone all around him. It seemed to be a...factory?

"Huh. Didn't know they had this."

He headed into the main building. Machinery made of iron was all around. Furnaces, anvils, conveyor belts, steam-powered engines, and hammers were visible.

"Interesting."

Immediately, he heard a beeping noise. He looked down and saw a wire placed at his feet. "Oh s—-!"

The entire building exploded.

There were burns and damage on his face and body, but they immediately healed. He got up and heard a commanding voice.

"You! Champion of the Voltians!"

He looked behind him to see a giant golem made of iron. The dwarf piloting it was secure in the chestplate. The golem had a large, spiked iron mace in its hand.

"Trespasser! You will be put down!"

"Wow, cool Christmas gift!"

He swung the mace down, and Fujii effortlessly dodged and delivered a powerful slash to the golem's chest, cutting deep.

"But you should have brought a little more homies to help you!"

The dwarf laughed and set the mace down. He clapped his hands together and soon after, half a dozen more dwarves surrounded Fujii, each with their own golem.

"We stay as one! YOU should have brought more friends!"

Fujii flipped his katana and tightened his grip on it.

"Buddy, I AM the friends."

His hair and eyes began to glow an icy blue, as the air around him seemed to cool down rapidly.

Meanwhile, on another side of the forest, Atomu, Nishiyama, and Tomoko were all running with Squad S-3, looking for Morino. Atomu ran ahead, scanning through the trees.

"No sign of Sir Morino! He'll have to be farther ahead!"

Through the trees, Atomu caught a glimpse of his sister from afar away. She was effortlessly pummeling dwarves that attacked her.

"Hmph. Isn't she having fun?" he wondered to himself.

Nishiyama glared at Tomoko, but in the process, a dwarf tried to attack her.

"Foul creature! Die!"

The dwarf tried to hit her and Tomoko got it. "Haha! I hit it!"

"Don't help me, you weirdo!"

"Haha!"

Another one tried to attack her from behind, and she snapped her fingers without even looking at it, paralyzing it and then shooting it. "See? I'm fine! Creep."

Atomu rolled his eyes, but more dwarves blocked the path. Various members of S-3 began shooting at it.

"No time for staring, kids! Light em' up!"

An older man sprayed heaps of plasma blasts at the dwarves, wasting no time at all.

"Oh, and name's Mashimo Kazu! I'll be your Vice-General."

Atomu nodded. "I see."

"Now fire these things up!" He jumped over one, blasting it in the back, dodged an axe throw from another one, shooting it in the face, and disarmed a third, before smacking it with the butt of his gun.

"Woah. He's good." Nishiyama stated.

They pressed onward, attempting to find their General.

Meanwhile, in another part of the forest, Nukuri was putting pressure on Dachii and Luca, attacking both boys relentlessly.

"Get back! This is not your home!"

Dachii barely managed to jump over the blade before getting batted into a tree. "Look man, if I could go home right now, trust me, I WOULD!"

The dwarf stared in confusion for a tad bit, really taking in Dachii's appearance. "Wait, you look...human?"

"Uh, DUH? The skin color? The hair? The fact I look nothing like that guy!" He pointed at Luca. "What more do you need?"

"But why...would a human...help them? THEM?"

"To be honest pal, I didn't really have a choice—-"

Luca attacked Nukuri again, nearly catching him by surprise. He had to use his greatsword to block most of the attacks, but Luca still managed to strike him in the hip with his axe. "Ahh!"

The dwarf knocked Luca away with a powerful heavy attack. He refocused his attention on Dachii. "How do you...do what you do...? Humans do not...use those powers..."

"Look. Long story short, touched a crown, now I'm like this."

"A...crown...?"

"Yep. It kinda went into my body though, so I don't know if ABSORBED would be a better term, but it's not like I ate it, so—-?"

Luca threw his axes at Nukuri, who barely got out of the way. "He's distracted. We can beat him."

Nukuri stood up, growling. "No matter. I'll get to the bottom of this later!"

He spun in a crazed motion, swinging his sword back and forth. Dachii glowed gray again and tried to jump, but this time it didn't work.

"C'mon, c'mon, COME ON!"

And his chest got slashed by the blade. "OW!"

Luca managed to climb up a tree, in a standoff with the dwarf. Nukuri began to chop the tree down with his blade. "Come down, you tyrant!"

"Climb up here."

While Luca kept Nukuri occupied, Dachii stood up, trying to recover. His wounds began to heal themselves. "That…is definitely weird."

But in his head, a "voice?" was heard.

"...evil...creatures...tyrants...murderers..."

"Huh? What?"

Nukuri refocused his attention back on Dachii, swinging his sword at him. Dachii had little time to react, putting his arms up, which began to glow gray. The blade collided with them, and just as if it were striking a sturdy wall, it bounced off.

When Nukuri looked at his blade, he saw it was partially dented where it struck Dachii. Dachii looked at his arms and they were fine. "...Oh..."

"What trickery is this? What Power do you possess?"

"To be honest, I don't know either..."

Nukuri attempted another strike and Luca moved quickly to parry the blow. Nukuri looked at both boys, his eyes darting between them.

"This is too risky! You are an unknown danger!"

He pointed at Dachii. "I must fall back!"

Dachii tilted his head. "What did *I* do? I'm literally just here, if we're being serious."

Luca took off after the dwarf. "Let's follow him. He'll probably lead us to their base."

Dachii groaned and reluctantly followed after Luca. Nukuri moved fast, darting through the trees as he moved deeper into the forest. The boys were able to keep pace, but the deeper they got into the forest the thicker the trees became.

"Are we still following him?"

"Yep!"

They disappeared further into the trees as they continued to trail the dwarf.

Far away, in another part of the forest, Marachii, Akari, and Hikari also made their way deeper. As they continued to look for Fujii, they saw a mysterious stone statue up ahead.

It was surrounded by flowers and was on a stone platform. It appeared to be some sort of shrine.

The statue, in particular, was a humanoid female figure, cradling a bird. She had a smile on her face and long hair that reached her thighs. All of them stared at it, confused.

Marachii reached out and tried to touch it, but Akari pulled him back. "It might be dangerous."

She prepared to hit it with an energy blast, but Hikari stopped her. "Wait...this feels kinda wrong, you know, destroying a perfect statue like this?"

"Well, it is just a statue—-"

But as soon as she looked back at it, a buff and bulky dwarf threw a spear near her feet. "You'd try to attack the Sacred Statue? A SEVERE crime."

They all jumped back, as he picked up his spear. "I will NOT let you hurt her!"

Marachii looked at the statue again. "Who is she—-?"

But Akari shot an energy blast at him, and he used his shield to block, but slid back a little from the force of the impact. "Strong Power..."

He winded up his spear and aimed high, so Akari grabbed Hikari and Marachii and jumped onto a tree as the spear missed them by an inch.

Marachii looked at the angry dwarf. "Who is that?"

"Don't know."

"He's so mean!" Hikari had to use her storage magic to get rid of a knife he tried to throw at them.

"Come down! Face me!"

"Who are you?"

"I am Durin Stonehammer! A Dwarven General!"

Marachii wiped his brow. "Yep. That answers a lot."

The dwarf kicked the tree, attempting to make them fall down. Akari stood. "Okay. Enough of this."

She jumped down, kicking Durin with a leg full of energy. He was knocked back and tried to recover, charging at her with his spear. She simply parried all of his attacks with ease. In no time at all, she ripped his shield out of his hands and broke it upon her knee, before disarming him and snapping his spear in half.

"Argh! You have such POWER!"

"Yes. Now fall."

She cocked her hand back and a wave of energy flowed through it. As she prepared to punch Durin, he blew his horn, and lots of armed dwarves appeared at his location.

"Hey! Step away from General Durin!"

She looked at them. Then she punched Durin so hard that he landed on a tree branch. "Ughhhhh...."

"She laid her hands on him! Kill her!"

"Oh, yes I did."

As Marachii and Hikari dropped down from the trees, all of the dwarves charged.

"For THE FOREST!"

Back at the Dwarf Factory, Fujii had carved through all the iron golems and had their pilots at the mercy of his blade. They were huddled together, shivering from the cold that Fujii emitted. "So, any idea where your king is? Any?"

"Get away, you monster!" The first dwarf with the iron golem glared at Fujii.

"You, what's your name?"

"I won't say!"

"Ironbeard, tell him your name!"

"Hey!"

Fujii laughed. "What a funny name! To be honest, I was expecting something like Gregor, or you know..."

The dwarves all backed away. "Sound the horn! Bring out the prototypes!"

"Prototype, ehh? Of what?"

A dwarf next to Ironbeard blew into a horn. Fujii heard loud stomps in the distance, getting closer and closer.

"What'd you guys do? Bring out some dragons?"

The stomps got louder and louder, and Fujii looked up to see dozens of larger and more ARMORED golems. They seemed to be made of an EVEN stronger metal. Fujii knew the answer to it.

"Titanium...?" he wondered, watching as they drew their weapons.

"Crush the Champion!"

Fujii held his sword out, cracking his shoulders. "Okay."

He got in his stance and moved in a BLUR, slashing one in the head. It didn't cut as deep as before, but he still managed to do some damage. "Impressive work! Gotta smash it, though!"

All the dwarves had their golems attack him at once. Fujii had to evade giant spears, axes, swords, maces, and even giant arrows shot from giant bows.

"He's too hard to hit! So fast!"

Ironbeard stood up. "Keep up the attack! He will give in!"

Fujii stabbed his ice katana into the ground, and a mountain of ice spikes erupted from the ground below it. It trapped a handful of golems in its ice, as their pilots struggled to break free.

"S...stuck!"

In his mind, Fujii decided to handle the golems quickly before they became a problem. As he prepared to attack one again, one golem threw a net onto him, catching him in it.

"Got you!"

As the golem lifted him up, the dwarf inside spat at him. "Disgusting beast!"

"Well that's not very nice, is it?"

He prepared to slash his way out, but he saw that his sword wasn't in his hand. He looked down and saw it still lying on the ground.

"Oh, damn."

As the golem prepared to crush him, Fujii focused his power on his hand and summoned another Ice Katana, and slashed his way out of the net, to the shock of all the dwarves present.

"HOW?"

Fujii landed on the head of a golem, taking a deep breath. "Phew, almost got me there!"

Four golems lined up, each with bows and arrows aimed at him. "FIRE!"

As each of them let their arrows fly, a blur moved in front of them, deflecting them all. Landing gracefully on the ground, Fujii saw:

"Naito?"

She was standing there, with two giant metal fans in her hands. Her "Recurve Fans." They were snapped open, as she sighed a deep and quiet sigh.

"I'm here. Kenshi."

Meanwhile, Dachii and Luca had gotten split up tracking down Nukuri. Dachii walked through all the giant trees, calling for his teammate.

"Luca? Uh, Luca? Wolf-boy? Wild Child?"

Right between the dense leaves of the trees, Dachii could see a kingdom of stone up ahead, with wood and iron mixed in. He walked into the town in front of the castle.

"Hello? Luca, you here?"

THUD.

Right behind him, Dachii heard a loud noise. He gulped and turned around.

"Well, well, well? What's this? A TRESPASSER?"

Dachii saw a hulking dwarf, almost two feet taller than him, with a massive iron war hammer in his hands. "Oh boy."

The dwarf drew his weapon, smashing it into the ground nearby. "You've seen too much!"

Then he picked it up, motioning for Dachii to come at him.

"NOW, you die!"

—-